Instructions: Keep it clean. No real names. My advice is to stick with the plot diagram we discussed (short story elements handout). Activating Circumstance, Rising Action, Climax, Denouement. Consider starting with Setting (time, place). You may write as much as you want, but remember it may be subsequently edited for grammar, fluency and cohesiveness.
The invitation came as a surprise. At the metallic clang of the mail slot I'd stumbled to the front door, eyes still half-fogged with sleep. And there, looking quite out of place on the ragged pink and blue doormat, was a large brown envelope. I hefted it and examined the neat cursive spelling out my name and address. You don't usually find handwriting like that these days.
The letter inside the envelope bore the same old-fashioned script. "You are cordially invited to our gathering on 31 October," I read. "We will wait for you." There was no signature, just an address. I hadn't the slightest clue as to who the letter could have come from. Curious, I powered on my computer and googled the address. What came up was as surprising as it was sinister. The address was an old mansion about sixteen blocks from my house. On Halloween of 1952 an eerie thing had occurred there. The entire family of that house had died of some mysterious cause in a single night. There was no evidence of suicide or homicide; nor were the deaths natural - all five of the dead were perfectly healthy the day before. I tried and failed to suppress a shudder.
That night I sat and pondered the meaning of the letter. Could it be a simple joke from my friends, or was it something I should be weary of? I paced back and forth in my kitchen with the envelope in my hands, muttering thoughts to myself. I had no one to talk to and ask for advice. Truthfully, I was scared. Finally, just after midnight, I stopped pacing, put down the letter and reached a decision. The next day, I would go and visit the house alone. With that thought, I headed up the stairs to bed. As I ascended the stairs, I noticed a slight movement outside the windows of my bedroom. Compelled by my curiosity, I cautiously inched towards the window, picking up a bat as I neared it. Crash! The window broke and suddenly, someone was in my room.
Alert but also terrified, I held the bat up by my head. I'm ready for you, whatever you are...I'm fourteen years old...I'm not afraid of petty little thieves... Both me and the intruder stood motionless for a brief moment.
"Who's there?! Show yourself!" I tried to make my voice heavy with intimidation, but it ended up squeaking at the end.
"Hello there, Ryan."
"I have a weapon, and I'm--" Wham! The last thing I remembered was a purple-bearded face looking over me as I lay sprawled and numb on my bedroom floor.
Something cold and wet was on my forehead. A cloth? Did I have a fever? My eyes flickered open and squinted at a sun-lit room furnished with antiques and purple wallpaper.
"Hello there, Ryan."
"Wha....where am I...who....who are you?" I said weakly, moving my joints to check if I was injured or not.
"Ah. So you are awake," he said, moving his head out from behind the dusty book shelf. "You have probably heard of me Ryan, and you have probably seen me before, when you were little, I mean. But, you probably forgot and probably will not remember who I am."
"What are you saying??" I asked, trying to get out of the rusty bed but quickly realizing that I was strapped tightly onto the bed-poles. I was surprised the bed had not collapsed under my weight.
"I wouldn't move if I were you, I injected some shots into you while you were unconscious. Moving could bring you into a coma at this time period. I want you to do me a very small favor."
A surge of panic rushed into me.
"What are you talking about? What am I injected with? Tell me!"
He walked out of the room and came back in with an old projector that looked as if it was about to fall apart.
"That," he said, smiling a bit now, "I will show you in a bit."
At this instant, questions started to shoot into my head from all directions. Why am I even here...who is this person, and what does he want from me?
"Look here at this wall Ryan, and you will see why I have brought you here."
It was a couple of cats.
"What is the meaning of this nonsense? What is that supposed to mean?"
"It is so typical of your sort to not understand. What you see here is the same cat, but simply from a different perspective. It is completely redundant to make any distinction whatsoever between these different representations of the same fundamental image."
"What?"
"The mediocrity does not need to understand the nature of the experiments that are conducted and certainly does not need to even start to realize the purpose behind such a work of art that explores the human condition."
"Actually, you're not making any sense."
"As would be expected. You do not see what you have done in your life. You do not realize that the world you live in is an unstable environment—a place to prove the butterfly effect if you will. Everything that seems to be is simply an illusion. Do you recall that cat?"
"What?"
"Think back and do try to remember."
The man seemed to grab something nearby, and then there was a sudden flash of light.
It felt like I had been asleep for only a couple of minutes. The sunshine beaming into my eyes and the birds singing outside woke me up. Thinking that I was still a captive of the mysterious man, I startled up only to find out that I was lying down in my bed. Thank God, I thought to myself. It was all a dream, a nightmare. My moment of relief was short. I almost had a heart attack when I checked my cell phone. Two days had passed since the day I was attacked by the intruder. I couldn't have been sleeping for two days, so that event must have been real. What shocked me even more was the picture of the cat; it was nicely put on my desk with an enveloped letter beside it. I could clearly remember the man explaining this picture to me, telling me to remember the cat. I had never seen that picture in my life before. The man must be crazy because this whole situation is crazy, I thought. I was just about to read what the letter said inside, but I was interrupted by my mother.
"Oh my goodness you're awake! Thank God you are okay!" My mother cried in joy, and hugged me tightly in her arms.
"Mom, what did I do these past two days?" I asked curiously.
"Honey, I am as clueless as you are right now. I thought you died on the floor, and I called 911 as soon as I could."
I went into a deep conversation asking about the envelope and the cats, but my questioning was to no avail.
"The doc said that you had a seizure and that you were in a coma until just now. I was worried sick! I didn't want to lose my only baby boy!"
I continued to think to myself about this mysterious occurrence and it seemed as if this event truly was real, and I had gone into a coma. But what bugged me most was that for some reason, it seemed like I had seen those pictures before. I repeated the words, "...Do you recall that cat?" The words repeated in my mind. I had heard this voice before, but I could not recall when. I had heard the madman's accent before, but where? I tried to get out of my bed, but my lower body was paralyzed. What was happening? Was it the injection the mysterious man had given me? Was I going to die?
"Mom! Where are you? I can't move!"
I heard the same wicked laughter that resembled that of the mad man.
My vision suddenly became impaired. My head started spinning, and the last thing I remembered hearing was "Remember the cat..."
"Remember that cat.."
"Remember that cat?"
"I remember that cat!!" The lightbulb suddenly lit up in my head. But everywhere around me was pitch black. I rubbed my eyes, opening and closing my eyelids several times but still seeing nothing. Fear struck my heart. "Am I blind?" I said to myself. Just then, I saw a dim light source coming from far away. I started running towards it as fast as I could, afraid the light might disappear before I reached it. My leg muscles became so powerful that every step I took became a lead. It even seemed like I have grown out two more legs.
"I will totally improve my milk run time this Friday!" I thought.
As I ran closer and closer, the light got so bright that it started to hurt my eyes. I tried to stop my legs, but they just wouldn't listen to me. I ran through the light and found myself inside a dining room. It was like a house that belongs to giants. Everything was ten times my size: the dining table, the chairs, and the plates. The ceiling was also as high as the sky. I looked around, and behind me was this hole at the bottom of the wall.
"Is that where I ran from?" I wondered and scratched my head.
WAIT! Why do I have claws! I look down my body. I was grey with a thin layer of fur. I turned around, and saw a skinny tail attached to my back. I was a rat !
"Ahhhhh!" I screamed.
But the only sound coming out of my mouth was,"Squeakkk...!"
"Meow..." I heard a response.
I turned around and saw a cat staring at me, an eerie smile spread across its face. It was that cat! The cat in the picture!
The cat looked hungry. I freaked out and began to run away from the cat before I became its lunch. I hid under the couch far away from the cat's claws. I started to ponder over how and why I had turned into a rat, and I wondered what was in the substance that the strange man had injected into me. How was I going to survive as a rat? Or better yet, how could I turn back to my human self ? "Meow Meow" I started to hear the cries of the cat again, and they caused an urgent tickle to run down my spine. The cat had found a way to get it's claws deep inside the couch to attack me.
“Squeakkk….” I was really freaking out this time. I ran with no direction, trying desperately to get away from the dangerous claw. Suddenly, the heavy, fancy door on the wall opened, and the evil cat stopped what it was doing. “How did that injection work on the boy? Or should I say our poor little King?” No! It was him, the mysterious man! Where did he come from?!! Wait! I needed to calm down. But what was he talking about?
Suddenly, everything became very clear. It shouldn't matter that my situation was similar to Alice's situation in her stupid Wonder Land. And I shouldn’t care what he was saying. The most important thing right now was to get out of this really long and confusing nightmare. What should I do? There was only a rope on the floor, and the cat was staring at me. Who could help me now?!
Some strange man beckoned to the mysterious man to go out and see something. Now, the cat and I were the only ones in the room. The cat was getting closer and closer to me, but my feet could not even move. I could only watch the awful cat getting closer to me step by step. The cat got so near to me that I could even feel its warm, steady breath. Suddenly, the cat flew at my throat. "Help me, mom!" was the only thing that I could say. "I'm right here!" I vaguely heard my mom's worried voice," I'm right here." I opened my eyes and looked around. I was still lying on my bed, and my mom was holding my hands and sitting next to me. "Are you okay?" my mom said worriedly," Did you have a nightmare again, my baby?" "Yes, nightmare! Cat! I remember that cat!"
"What cat are you talking about, sweetie?" asked my mom, but I ignored her. I checked my cellphone again, but there was no way that it was right. It couldn't be! Last time I checked my phone, it was November 1, but now it appeared to be Halloween, the day I was supposed to go to the gathering at the mysterious address. I got out of bed and ran down the stairs. "Ryan? Ryan! Come back! Where are you going?" called my mom.
Walking as quickly as I could, I made my way to the address. I didn't know exactly what to expect when I got there, but it seemed that it was the only thing I could do. The invitation was the thing that started all this madness, so it had to be the end of the madness as well. I thought about everything that had happened to me since I had received the invitation. The mad man, the injection, the cat, and the rat that was me... None of it made sense, but somehow I believed that everything would become clear once I had reached my destination.
Eventually, I reached the address. It was a dark and hollow mansion, abandoned and lonely on the top of the hill. Ignoring the screeching instinct telling me not to enter, I huffed out a breath and strode in. The door creaked as I entered. The inside of the mansion seemed strangely familiar to me. It had no lights, giving it a haunting and gloomy feel at the same time. A broken glass chandelier was present in the middle of the living room. The glass was still shattered and scattered everywhere on the floor. There was a big staircase that was that split into two ways in front of the chandelier, each of them leading to a hallway. I gulped and made my way to the stairs in front of me and chose to go to the hallway on my left. "Hello?" I said, voice shaky and pathetic. "Mystery man! Where are you?? I have something to talk to you about! It's you who invited me into this mansion, am I right? Then show up already!!!" I heard my voice echo, but nobody answered me. Instead I heard something creaking in the hallway. I quickly dashed up and saw an almost inviting door opening on the right side of the wall. It must be a hint. I thought and slowly stepped into the room with sweat dripping down my forehead.
Suddenly, I felt this tug at my pant leg and I jerked away only to discover a beautiful orange tabby cat looking up at me as if he was supposed to be my guide. "Let me guess I will be visiting the March Hare next right? Where's the Queen of Spades?" The cat ignored my joke and led me away from the living room, but I didn't know whether to go after it or not. The cat kept looking back at me to see if I would trust it. I needed answers, so I did.
As we went further into the house, I often had to brush massive spider webs away as I walked. The cat led me down an old stone staircase into the under belly of the house. I could feel the cold breeze on my face. There was something down here, and I hoped it was the answers I was looking for. Unfortunately, it was so dark that I had a hard time seeing the cat and where we were going. The more steps I took, the darker and colder it got. Along the staircase, I could see the outlines of paintings but I had no idea what the paintings were. They loomed over me like they were watching me reluctantly move forward.
I got to the bottom of the staircase. There was a long old dining table made out of old blond wood. It had a candle aura on it that lit the room just enough so that the darkness could hide in the corners . The cat, who had led me to this dark and uninviting place, nimbly jumped onto the table and sat down. Out of the darkness, one of the shadows came to visit the table. It was none other than the madman in my dreams, smiling up at me as he took his place at the head of the table.
The madman motioned for me to sit at the opposite end of the dining table. As I took my seat on the dusty old brown chair, it let out a loud whine. In front of me was a whiskery old man gazing at me, while having his ringed hand fondling the soft orange fur on the cat’s back. I shifted uneasily from left to right, "no March Hare here, must be the wrong place", I said in an attempt to decrease the tension. Each time I moved I created a different tone of melody from the sound of the squeaking chair. The longer I observed the cat, the more it behaved like my best buddy Ken’s white cat. The way it purred, the way it scratched its neck before rubbing its nose with its right paw and the way its emerald eyes gleamed in the darkness. “Lotto.” I let my lips spill out the words. Lotto.The reaction I got from the two creatures before me was a shiver from the man and from the cat, a perk of recognition at one's name being called. Lotto, the now orange cat, twitched its ear at the sound of his name. Anxiety and curiosity built up inside me as I bolted straight up from the screeching old chair.
The table shifted as I leaned on it for support. What? how could... I don't...this is... I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Lotto had been brutally murdered years ago. Skinned then hung upside down outside of Ken's house. I shuddered as the repressed memory surfaced. It wasn't something a young kid should see. They never found the culprit. Ken had always dismissed it as simply an act of cruelty but I had wondered if it was a message or warning of sorts. I convinced myself it couldn't have been but as I stared at the amused eyes of the old man, I couldn't help but wonder whether I had actually been right. "So, now do you understand?" The madman tilted his head, continuously stroking the cat. My lips felt too dry, my mouth too parched. I continued to stare.
"You killed Ken's cat!" I yelled.
"You're the one that skinned Lotto and hung him upside down outside their house!" There was no change in his facial expression. Not a smile, not a grin, not even a blink. He just sat there staring at me. Since he wasn't speaking, I decided to continue. "Who are you and what have I ever done to you?! Why did you come after me, Lotto wasn't even my cat! What do you want from me?!" Finally, he stood up and motioned for me to follow. Hesitantly, I obeyed his command and followed him into what appeared to be a study room. "Sit down Ryan," he said, suggesting a deep red velvet chair that seemed to be older than my great-grandmother. A moment later, to my horror, a gate came crashing down blocking the only exit out.
Then silence... In the corner of my eye the silhouette of the cat slowly crept backwards and disappeared among the chaos of dust and rubble. I quickly glanced at the seat where the madman was, but there was no trace of him. Everything came to a complete halt. The air cleared. The vibration of the room ceased. The echoing sound of the crashing gate stopped. I found myself alone in the room. The only thing I could squint out inside the dark room was the old wooden table and the chair that I sat in. Suddenly ghastly shrieks from underneath the floor erupted. I ran into the corner of the room while covering my ears. Then abruptly the sound diminished after ten seconds. I cautiously got to my feet and crouched my way to the iron gate to find a way to get out. But just after I took three steps, the ground started to rumble. On the wall next to the gate, a crack suddenly ran up to the ceiling. I held my breath, scared the walls would collapse. Fortunately it stopped. I gave a sigh of relief, but only a bit to early... I looked up at the ceiling again just in time for it to give way.
"Please no! I'm too young to die!" Then the floor collapsed too...
I was scared. Suddenly every thing turned in to kittens. They were as small as a big cup, dead-looking too, just like zombies but they were cats. "Ok this is definitely not the March Hare's place!" I screamed. All of them crawled towards me, like I was their dinner. I tried kicking some of them, but there were too many. It was too late to run, and the last piece of wood I was standing on turned into bloody, zombie kittens crawling up towards me. Zombie kittens fell all over me and bit me and it felt just like hell. I screamed, but all I could hear was me suffering. Suddenly I felt water touching my face but when I put my hands on my face, of course it was my own blood. The kittens bit a hole on my neck, and all the other kittens crawled over me. It was painful, blood everywhere. I put my left hand to cover the wounds, but they soon started eating my hand too.
"Help! Help! Is anyone here? I don't want to die!" I screamed again but no one answered me. I was too tired to say a word. Actually I could not speak, my blood was gushing out from the hole of my neck. Blood was all over the ceiling, the wall and floor, even the kittens were covered in red. I was ready to die, the kittens started eating away my whole body, but why didn't I feel pain anymore while my brain was still conscious of my surroundings? Suddenly, a glaring light came out from the crack of the wall that almost blinded my eyes. When I opened my eyes, all the kittens disappeared. The wounds on my body were all healed. Fortunately, I didn't die.
"What happened?", I thought as I glanced anxiously around me in the chilly study room.
All was so still, quiet and lifeless. The room had changed drastically. The pine-scented table and the velvet chair that the sinister man sat on weren't there. The gate disappeared, and even the ancient wooden entrance now appeared to be a newly replaced, cheap door. The stench of fresh white paint was unbearable--a sharp contrast to the moldy stench of the abandoned room. I checked my watch- 10:15 p.m., 10 minutes since I entered this room; the foreboding old man has to be nearby with the cat. Thinking back, when it nudged at my legs, its fur felt so fluffy and surprisingly soft. When I looked into its eyes, they were so observant and alive; could Lotto really be a zombie? How did the zombie kittens disappear? More importantly, where did the light come from? Slowly, I got back on my feet and started to advance towards the cracked wall. The wooden floor screeched in protest as I took my first step and resonated in the room; my heart thumped against my chest. I immediately stopped and held my breath forcefully.There was no sound in response. Then I lowered my body and crept silently towards the crack. Bit by bit, I carefully leveled my eyes with the opening in the wall. I couldn't believe my own eyes and ears...... It talked. This must be the butterfly effect that the geezer spoke of! Or maybe there was someone on the other side! I had to do something.
As quickly as I could, I turned and reached for the door. As I turned the doorknob painfully slow with my sweaty and moist hands, I could hear my heart thumping from the adrenaline. I was still shivering from the bitter experience, but as I gradually opened the door, there was nothing but a dining room that looked as comfortable as an ordinary house. There weren't any dusty brown chairs or spider webs to be seen anywhere. All the furniture was replaced and as I moved forward, stepping on the wooden floor that made such a fine voice, my eyes swept the room seeking to find anything amiss. The only thing to be spotted was a long shelf that was located left. There was a small album at the end of the shelf. When I grabbed the doorknob to get out of the room, my eyes suddenly followed the album again. A faded brown cover and the picture in front... The album was Ken's.
As if possessed, I inched towards the shelf and grabbed the album. I opened it and saw Ken and his cat. They were so lovely in the pictures. For a moment, I was lost in a deep thought. I couldn't imagine back then seeing Ken's cat dying in the brutal man's hands. I was so scared. But now, I thought, if only I was a bit faster, if only I left home to get to Ken's house earlier, I could've stopped this brutal murder. My hands were quivering. I thought of what I should do.
Then I heard a voice.
"Wait."
I turned. The cat spoke again, "You still have time." Then it dawned on me.
"Lotto? What are you doing here? Why can you talk?"
"What you see here is the same cat, but simply from a different perspective. It is completely redundant to make any distinction whatsoever between these different representations of the same fundamental image." he said, in a slightly mocking tone. "I have not changed from what I am, as I merely did not present this side of me. The Lotto you saw in your life may not have been who Lotto really was."
His mockery was starting to get to me, I shouted. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier? Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you tell me this was going to happen? You could have stopped all of this madness!"
The cat sighed. "Well, now is not the time for that, how about you go and look through the window there yonder."
Curious, I looked. To my relief, I found the mad old geezer, but my relief was soon replaced with horror, as he was approaching my friend, John, and his brother as they were stopping at a nearby house while trick-or-treating. I had one chance to end this and I knew what to do. I dashed for the door.
I couldn't control over my feelings and I acted with great gusto. I ran to the mad man without having any second thoughts of what might happen. Then I stopped.
What was I going to do when I reached him? Hit him on the head? Jump on him? I hated this and I just wanted this horrible nightmare to end. It was more dramatic than I could handle. I was only 14...why did this have to happen to me? I made up my mind that this foolishness would just have to end. I whipped out my cell and dialed 9-1-1. It was the only thing left for me to do. I explained the situation, saying there was an intruder and I was feeling threatened. The police were on their way. As for my friends, I beckoned to them to come follow me. To follow me away from the danger that was approaching them but they couldn't hear me. I yelled louder only for my voice to be drowned out by the screaming of young ghosts and witches running around in search for small delights at the doors of houses. My heart started beating again, what was going to happen to my friends?! What could I do?!
"Save them... How to save them ...? Then I found the hole in the wall, I could have sworn I saw fearful eyes staring at me. "Someone's gotta fix these walls, there are way too many holes" I said to myself. A memory suddenly surfaced in my mind. Similar to this situation, similar to this story. A bold thought suddenly surfaced out of my mind. Quickly, I picked up a rope from the ground, rushed to the Lotto's side, tied it's neck and led it down the stairs and outside. The cat glared at me with fierce green eyes, growled and waved it's claws, fighting me. The man instinctively charged at me and began to attack. Same with my memory, wait, I was fighting a cat and a man. Could this day get any weirder? A crown had gathered around us, looking on as I fought a very one-sided fight (I was losing). Suddenly, a very pained expression formed on the madman's face, his hands stuck in his neck, trying to remove something. It was Lotto! But why? Bruises formed on my body as I watched the scene. No, this is not happening, I did not just go through all this. I am not in danger, my friend's lives all in my hands. Lotto is not killing this man. Gradually, the cat stopped his onslaught and the madman also fell. Where was Ken? I rushed towards the mansion and broke the already crumbling wall and there he was unconscious. I took him back to his house and began to search for the cat. It was dead. It's green eyes staring into space. I hanged the cat on a tree. Weakly, I collapsed, and felt as if I was falling into a deep pit and then there was darkness. In my comatose it seemed like I had done what I just did before. Everything just felt like a huge episode of deja vu....
I survived and told my family this bizarre story years later. I waited intently for the sweating and nervous twitches that were going to occur. Instead they stared at me with complete disbelief and just a hint of concern. "And that kids is how I spent my 14th halloween." I said.
"You're kidding right?" My daughter Kelly began to laugh. "That all you got? So much for trying to scare us Dad."
My son Tom got out his phone and started updating his twitter. "Dad with another fail attempt to scare us on our annual camping trip." He narrated as he typed.
"Why you don't believe me?" I asked.
"It's not that we don't believe you honey," My wife Dana replied, "It's just....I mean come on zombie kittens?" At this they all promptly began to roll around in laughter.
"What?! I'm serious guys I was literally being eaten alive by undead kittens." More laughter.
"From the looks of it Dad, the only thing eating you alive were the drugs you were on back then". Tom sneered.
"I'm serious guys all these things happened to me", I couldn't believe they didn't believe me.
"I think the moral of Dad's story is drugs are bad" Dana looked at me expectantly as if to tell me she was right and I was wrong, as usual. "Erm yes your mother's right, don't do drugs." I said quickly.
"You could have told us that at the beginning of the story, would have saved a lot of time". Kelly said.
"What can I say", I said "I'm always one for the dramatic, well, time go to bed kids."
When they had entered their tents I turned to my wife but she already knew what I was going to say. "Please don't say that really happened to you". She said, "Let's just go to bed".
"I didn't say anything", I muttered.
As I entered the tent I looked out into the dark forest and there staring at me, were a pair of dark, green eyes.....
The invitation came as a surprise. At the metallic clang of the mail slot I'd stumbled to the front door, eyes still half-fogged with sleep. And there, looking quite out of place on the ragged pink and blue doormat, was a large brown envelope. I hefted it and examined the neat cursive spelling out my name and address. You don't usually find handwriting like that these days.
The letter inside the envelope bore the same old-fashioned script. "You are cordially invited to our gathering on 31 October," I read. "We will wait for you." There was no signature, just an address. I hadn't the slightest clue as to who the letter could have come from.
Curious, I powered on my computer and googled the address. What came up was as surprising as it was sinister. The address was an old mansion about sixteen blocks from my house. On Halloween of 1952 an eerie thing had occurred there. The entire family of that house had died of some mysterious cause in a single night. There was no evidence of suicide or homicide; nor were the deaths natural - all five of the dead were perfectly healthy the day before. I tried and failed to suppress a shudder.
That night I sat and pondered the meaning of the letter. Could it be a simple joke from my friends, or was it something I should be weary of? I paced back and forth in my kitchen with the envelope in my hands, muttering thoughts to myself. I had no one to talk to and ask for advice. Truthfully, I was scared. Finally, just after midnight, I stopped pacing, put down the letter and reached a decision. The next day, I would go and visit the house alone. With that thought, I headed up the stairs to bed. As I ascended the stairs, I noticed a slight movement outside the windows of my bedroom. Compelled by my curiosity, I cautiously inched towards the window, picking up a bat as I neared it. Crash! The window broke and suddenly, someone was in my room.
Alert but also terrified, I held the bat up by my head. I'm ready for you, whatever you are...I'm fourteen years old...I'm not afraid of petty little thieves... Both me and the intruder stood motionless for a brief moment.
"Who's there?! Show yourself!" I tried to make my voice heavy with intimidation, but it ended up squeaking at the end.
"Hello there, Ryan."
"I have a weapon, and I'm--"
Wham! The last thing I remembered was a purple-bearded face looking over me as I lay sprawled and numb on my bedroom floor.
Something cold and wet was on my forehead. A cloth? Did I have a fever? My eyes flickered open and squinted at a sun-lit room furnished with antiques and purple wallpaper.
"Hello there, Ryan."
"Wha....where am I...who....who are you?" I said weakly, moving my joints to check if I was injured or not.
"Ah. So you are awake," he said, moving his head out from behind the dusty book shelf. "You have probably heard of me Ryan, and you have probably seen me before, when you were little, I mean. But, you probably forgot and probably will not remember who I am."
"What are you saying??" I asked, trying to get out of the rusty bed but quickly realizing that I was strapped tightly onto the bed-poles. I was surprised the bed had not collapsed under my weight.
"I wouldn't move if I were you, I injected some shots into you while you were unconscious. Moving could bring you into a coma at this time period. I want you to do me a very small favor."
A surge of panic rushed into me.
"What are you talking about? What am I injected with? Tell me!"
He walked out of the room and came back in with an old projector that looked as if it was about to fall apart.
"That," he said, smiling a bit now, "I will show you in a bit."
At this instant, questions started to shoot into my head from all directions. Why am I even here...who is this person, and what does he want from me?
"Look here at this wall Ryan, and you will see why I have brought you here."
It was a couple of cats.
"What is the meaning of this nonsense? What is that supposed to mean?"
"It is so typical of your sort to not understand. What you see here is the same cat, but simply from a different perspective. It is completely redundant to make any distinction whatsoever between these different representations of the same fundamental image."
"What?"
"The mediocrity does not need to understand the nature of the experiments that are conducted and certainly does not need to even start to realize the purpose behind such a work of art that explores the human condition."
"Actually, you're not making any sense."
"As would be expected. You do not see what you have done in your life. You do not realize that the world you live in is an unstable environment—a place to prove the butterfly effect if you will. Everything that seems to be is simply an illusion. Do you recall that cat?"
"What?"
"Think back and do try to remember."
The man seemed to grab something nearby, and then there was a sudden flash of light.
It felt like I had been asleep for only a couple of minutes. The sunshine beaming into my eyes and the birds singing outside woke me up. Thinking that I was still a captive of the mysterious man, I startled up only to find out that I was lying down in my bed. Thank God, I thought to myself. It was all a dream, a nightmare. My moment of relief was short. I almost had a heart attack when I checked my cell phone. Two days had passed since the day I was attacked by the intruder. I couldn't have been sleeping for two days, so that event must have been real. What shocked me even more was the picture of the cat; it was nicely put on my desk with an enveloped letter beside it. I could clearly remember the man explaining this picture to me, telling me to remember the cat. I had never seen that picture in my life before. The man must be crazy because this whole situation is crazy, I thought. I was just about to read what the letter said inside, but I was interrupted by my mother.
"Oh my goodness you're awake! Thank God you are okay!" My mother cried in joy, and hugged me tightly in her arms.
"Mom, what did I do these past two days?" I asked curiously.
"Honey, I am as clueless as you are right now. I thought you died on the floor, and I called 911 as soon as I could."
I went into a deep conversation asking about the envelope and the cats, but my questioning was to no avail.
"The doc said that you had a seizure and that you were in a coma until just now. I was worried sick! I didn't want to lose my only baby boy!"
I continued to think to myself about this mysterious occurrence and it seemed as if this event truly was real, and I had gone into a coma. But what bugged me most was that for some reason, it seemed like I had seen those pictures before. I repeated the words, "...Do you recall that cat?" The words repeated in my mind. I had heard this voice before, but I could not recall when. I had heard the madman's accent before, but where? I tried to get out of my bed, but my lower body was paralyzed. What was happening? Was it the injection the mysterious man had given me? Was I going to die?
"Mom! Where are you? I can't move!"
I heard the same wicked laughter that resembled that of the mad man.
My vision suddenly became impaired. My head started spinning, and the last thing I remembered hearing was "Remember the cat..."
"Remember that cat.."
"Remember that cat?"
"I remember that cat!!" The lightbulb suddenly lit up in my head. But everywhere around me was pitch black. I rubbed my eyes, opening and closing my eyelids several times but still seeing nothing. Fear struck my heart. "Am I blind?" I said to myself. Just then, I saw a dim light source coming from far away. I started running towards it as fast as I could, afraid the light might disappear before I reached it. My leg muscles became so powerful that every step I took became a lead. It even seemed like I have grown out two more legs.
"I will totally improve my milk run time this Friday!" I thought.
As I ran closer and closer, the light got so bright that it started to hurt my eyes. I tried to stop my legs, but they just wouldn't listen to me. I ran through the light and found myself inside a dining room. It was like a house that belongs to giants. Everything was ten times my size: the dining table, the chairs, and the plates. The ceiling was also as high as the sky. I looked around, and behind me was this hole at the bottom of the wall.
"Is that where I ran from?" I wondered and scratched my head.
WAIT! Why do I have claws! I look down my body. I was grey with a thin layer of fur. I turned around, and saw a skinny tail attached to my back. I was a rat !
"Ahhhhh!" I screamed.
But the only sound coming out of my mouth was,"Squeakkk...!"
"Meow..." I heard a response.
I turned around and saw a cat staring at me, an eerie smile spread across its face. It was that cat! The cat in the picture!
The cat looked hungry. I freaked out and began to run away from the cat before I became its lunch. I hid under the couch far away from the cat's claws. I started to ponder over how and why I had turned into a rat, and I wondered what was in the substance that the strange man had injected into me. How was I going to survive as a rat? Or better yet, how could I turn back to my human self ? "Meow Meow" I started to hear the cries of the cat again, and they caused an urgent tickle to run down my spine. The cat had found a way to get it's claws deep inside the couch to attack me.
“Squeakkk….” I was really freaking out this time. I ran with no direction, trying desperately to get away from the dangerous claw. Suddenly, the heavy, fancy door on the wall opened, and the evil cat stopped what it was doing.
“How did that injection work on the boy? Or should I say our poor little King?” No! It was him, the mysterious man! Where did he come from?!! Wait! I needed to calm down. But what was he talking about?
Suddenly, everything became very clear. It shouldn't matter that my situation was similar to Alice's situation in her stupid Wonder Land. And I shouldn’t care what he was saying. The most important thing right now was to get out of this really long and confusing nightmare. What should I do? There was only a rope on the floor, and the cat was staring at me. Who could help me now?!
Some strange man beckoned to the mysterious man to go out and see something. Now, the cat and I were the only ones in the room. The cat was getting closer and closer to me, but my feet could not even move. I could only watch the awful cat getting closer to me step by step. The cat got so near to me that I could even feel its warm, steady breath. Suddenly, the cat flew at my throat.
"Help me, mom!" was the only thing that I could say.
"I'm right here!" I vaguely heard my mom's worried voice," I'm right here."
I opened my eyes and looked around. I was still lying on my bed, and my mom was holding my hands and sitting next to me.
"Are you okay?" my mom said worriedly," Did you have a nightmare again, my baby?"
"Yes, nightmare! Cat! I remember that cat!"
"What cat are you talking about, sweetie?" asked my mom, but I ignored her.
I checked my cellphone again, but there was no way that it was right. It couldn't be! Last time I checked my phone, it was November 1, but now it appeared to be Halloween, the day I was supposed to go to the gathering at the mysterious address. I got out of bed and ran down the stairs. "Ryan? Ryan! Come back! Where are you going?" called my mom.
Walking as quickly as I could, I made my way to the address. I didn't know exactly what to expect when I got there, but it seemed that it was the only thing I could do. The invitation was the thing that started all this madness, so it had to be the end of the madness as well. I thought about everything that had happened to me since I had received the invitation. The mad man, the injection, the cat, and the rat that was me... None of it made sense, but somehow I believed that everything would become clear once I had reached my destination.
Eventually, I reached the address. It was a dark and hollow mansion, abandoned and lonely on the top of the hill. Ignoring the screeching instinct telling me not to enter, I huffed out a breath and strode in. The door creaked as I entered. The inside of the mansion seemed strangely familiar to me. It had no lights, giving it a haunting and gloomy feel at the same time. A broken glass chandelier was present in the middle of the living room. The glass was still shattered and scattered everywhere on the floor. There was a big staircase that was that split into two ways in front of the chandelier, each of them leading to a hallway. I gulped and made my way to the stairs in front of me and chose to go to the hallway on my left. "Hello?" I said, voice shaky and pathetic. "Mystery man! Where are you?? I have something to talk to you about! It's you who invited me into this mansion, am I right? Then show up already!!!" I heard my voice echo, but nobody answered me. Instead I heard something creaking in the hallway. I quickly dashed up and saw an almost inviting door opening on the right side of the wall. It must be a hint. I thought and slowly stepped into the room with sweat dripping down my forehead.
Suddenly, I felt this tug at my pant leg and I jerked away only to discover a beautiful orange tabby cat looking up at me as if he was supposed to be my guide. "Let me guess I will be visiting the March Hare next right? Where's the Queen of Spades?" The cat ignored my joke and led me away from the living room, but I didn't know whether to go after it or not. The cat kept looking back at me to see if I would trust it. I needed answers, so I did.
As we went further into the house, I often had to brush massive spider webs away as I walked. The cat led me down an old stone staircase into the under belly of the house. I could feel the cold breeze on my face. There was something down here, and I hoped it was the answers I was looking for. Unfortunately, it was so dark that I had a hard time seeing the cat and where we were going. The more steps I took, the darker and colder it got. Along the staircase, I could see the outlines of paintings but I had no idea what the paintings were. They loomed over me like they were watching me reluctantly move forward.
I got to the bottom of the staircase. There was a long old dining table made out of old blond wood. It had a candle aura on it that lit the room just enough so that the darkness could hide in the corners . The cat, who had led me to this dark and uninviting place, nimbly jumped onto the table and sat down. Out of the darkness, one of the shadows came to visit the table. It was none other than the madman in my dreams, smiling up at me as he took his place at the head of the table.
The madman motioned for me to sit at the opposite end of the dining table. As I took my seat on the dusty old brown chair, it let out a loud whine. In front of me was a whiskery old man gazing at me, while having his ringed hand fondling the soft orange fur on the cat’s back. I shifted uneasily from left to right, "no March Hare here, must be the wrong place", I said in an attempt to decrease the tension. Each time I moved I created a different tone of melody from the sound of the squeaking chair. The longer I observed the cat, the more it behaved like my best buddy Ken’s white cat. The way it purred, the way it scratched its neck before rubbing its nose with its right paw and the way its emerald eyes gleamed in the darkness.
“Lotto.” I let my lips spill out the words. Lotto.The reaction I got from the two creatures before me was a shiver from the man and from the cat, a perk of recognition at one's name being called. Lotto, the now orange cat, twitched its ear at the sound of his name. Anxiety and curiosity built up inside me as I bolted straight up from the screeching old chair.
The table shifted as I leaned on it for support.
What? how could... I don't...this is...
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Lotto had been brutally murdered years ago. Skinned then hung upside down outside of Ken's house. I shuddered as the repressed memory surfaced. It wasn't something a young kid should see. They never found the culprit.
Ken had always dismissed it as simply an act of cruelty but I had wondered if it was a message or warning of sorts. I convinced myself it couldn't have been but as I stared at the amused eyes of the old man, I couldn't help but wonder whether I had actually been right.
"So, now do you understand?" The madman tilted his head, continuously stroking the cat.
My lips felt too dry, my mouth too parched. I continued to stare.
"You killed Ken's cat!" I yelled.
"You're the one that skinned Lotto and hung him upside down outside their house!" There was no change in his facial expression. Not a smile, not a grin, not even a blink. He just sat there staring at me. Since he wasn't speaking, I decided to continue. "Who are you and what have I ever done to you?! Why did you come after me, Lotto wasn't even my cat! What do you want from me?!" Finally, he stood up and motioned for me to follow. Hesitantly, I obeyed his command and followed him into what appeared to be a study room. "Sit down Ryan," he said, suggesting a deep red velvet chair that seemed to be older than my great-grandmother. A moment later, to my horror, a gate came crashing down blocking the only exit out.
Then silence... In the corner of my eye the silhouette of the cat slowly crept backwards and disappeared among the chaos of dust and rubble. I quickly glanced at the seat where the madman was, but there was no trace of him. Everything came to a complete halt. The air cleared. The vibration of the room ceased. The echoing sound of the crashing gate stopped. I found myself alone in the room. The only thing I could squint out inside the dark room was the old wooden table and the chair that I sat in. Suddenly ghastly shrieks from underneath the floor erupted. I ran into the corner of the room while covering my ears. Then abruptly the sound diminished after ten seconds. I cautiously got to my feet and crouched my way to the iron gate to find a way to get out. But just after I took three steps, the ground started to rumble. On the wall next to the gate, a crack suddenly ran up to the ceiling. I held my breath, scared the walls would collapse. Fortunately it stopped. I gave a sigh of relief, but only a bit to early... I looked up at the ceiling again just in time for it to give way.
"Please no! I'm too young to die!" Then the floor collapsed too...
I was scared. Suddenly every thing turned in to kittens. They were as small as a big cup, dead-looking too, just like zombies but they were cats. "Ok this is definitely not the March Hare's place!" I screamed. All of them crawled towards me, like I was their dinner. I tried kicking some of them, but there were too many. It was too late to run, and the last piece of wood I was standing on turned into bloody, zombie kittens crawling up towards me. Zombie kittens fell all over me and bit me and it felt just like hell. I screamed, but all I could hear was me suffering. Suddenly I felt water touching my face but when I put my hands on my face, of course it was my own blood. The kittens bit a hole on my neck, and all the other kittens crawled over me. It was painful, blood everywhere. I put my left hand to cover the wounds, but they soon started eating my hand too.
"Help! Help! Is anyone here? I don't want to die!" I screamed again but no one answered me. I was too tired to say a word. Actually I could not speak, my blood was gushing out from the hole of my neck. Blood was all over the ceiling, the wall and floor, even the kittens were covered in red. I was ready to die, the kittens started eating away my whole body, but why didn't I feel pain anymore while my brain was still conscious of my surroundings? Suddenly, a glaring light came out from the crack of the wall that almost blinded my eyes. When I opened my eyes, all the kittens disappeared. The wounds on my body were all healed. Fortunately, I didn't die.
"What happened?", I thought as I glanced anxiously around me in the chilly study room.
All was so still, quiet and lifeless. The room had changed drastically. The pine-scented table and the velvet chair that the sinister man sat on weren't there. The gate disappeared, and even the ancient wooden entrance now appeared to be a newly replaced, cheap door. The stench of fresh white paint was unbearable--a sharp contrast to the moldy stench of the abandoned room. I checked my watch- 10:15 p.m., 10 minutes since I entered this room; the foreboding old man has to be nearby with the cat. Thinking back, when it nudged at my legs, its fur felt so fluffy and surprisingly soft. When I looked into its eyes, they were so observant and alive; could Lotto really be a zombie? How did the zombie kittens disappear? More importantly, where did the light come from? Slowly, I got back on my feet and started to advance towards the cracked wall. The wooden floor screeched in protest as I took my first step and resonated in the room; my heart thumped against my chest. I immediately stopped and held my breath forcefully.There was no sound in response. Then I lowered my body and crept silently towards the crack. Bit by bit, I carefully leveled my eyes with the opening in the wall. I couldn't believe my own eyes and ears...... It talked. This must be the butterfly effect that the geezer spoke of! Or maybe there was someone on the other side! I had to do something.
As quickly as I could, I turned and reached for the door. As I turned the doorknob painfully slow with my sweaty and moist hands, I could hear my heart thumping from the adrenaline. I was still shivering from the bitter experience, but as I gradually opened the door, there was nothing but a dining room that looked as comfortable as an ordinary house. There weren't any dusty brown chairs or spider webs to be seen anywhere. All the furniture was replaced and as I moved forward, stepping on the wooden floor that made such a fine voice, my eyes swept the room seeking to find anything amiss. The only thing to be spotted was a long shelf that was located left. There was a small album at the end of the shelf. When I grabbed the doorknob to get out of the room, my eyes suddenly followed the album again. A faded brown cover and the picture in front... The album was Ken's.
As if possessed, I inched towards the shelf and grabbed the album. I opened it and saw Ken and his cat. They were so lovely in the pictures. For a moment, I was lost in a deep thought. I couldn't imagine back then seeing Ken's cat dying in the brutal man's hands. I was so scared. But now, I thought, if only I was a bit faster, if only I left home to get to Ken's house earlier, I could've stopped this brutal murder. My hands were quivering. I thought of what I should do.
Then I heard a voice.
"Wait."
I turned. The cat spoke again, "You still have time." Then it dawned on me.
"Lotto? What are you doing here? Why can you talk?"
"What you see here is the same cat, but simply from a different perspective. It is completely redundant to make any distinction whatsoever between these different representations of the same fundamental image." he said, in a slightly mocking tone. "I have not changed from what I am, as I merely did not present this side of me. The Lotto you saw in your life may not have been who Lotto really was."
His mockery was starting to get to me, I shouted. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier? Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you tell me this was going to happen? You could have stopped all of this madness!"
The cat sighed. "Well, now is not the time for that, how about you go and look through the window there yonder."
Curious, I looked. To my relief, I found the mad old geezer, but my relief was soon replaced with horror, as he was approaching my friend, John, and his brother as they were stopping at a nearby house while trick-or-treating. I had one chance to end this and I knew what to do. I dashed for the door.
I couldn't control over my feelings and I acted with great gusto. I ran to the mad man without having any second thoughts of what might happen. Then I stopped.
What was I going to do when I reached him? Hit him on the head? Jump on him? I hated this and I just wanted this horrible nightmare to end. It was more dramatic than I could handle. I was only 14...why did this have to happen to me? I made up my mind that this foolishness would just have to end. I whipped out my cell and dialed 9-1-1. It was the only thing left for me to do. I explained the situation, saying there was an intruder and I was feeling threatened. The police were on their way. As for my friends, I beckoned to them to come follow me. To follow me away from the danger that was approaching them but they couldn't hear me. I yelled louder only for my voice to be drowned out by the screaming of young ghosts and witches running around in search for small delights at the doors of houses. My heart started beating again, what was going to happen to my friends?! What could I do?!
"Save them... How to save them ...? Then I found the hole in the wall, I could have sworn I saw fearful eyes staring at me. "Someone's gotta fix these walls, there are way too many holes" I said to myself. A memory suddenly surfaced in my mind. Similar to this situation, similar to this story. A bold thought suddenly surfaced out of my mind. Quickly, I picked up a rope from the ground, rushed to the Lotto's side, tied it's neck and led it down the stairs and outside. The cat glared at me with fierce green eyes, growled and waved it's claws, fighting me. The man instinctively charged at me and began to attack. Same with my memory, wait, I was fighting a cat and a man. Could this day get any weirder? A crown had gathered around us, looking on as I fought a very one-sided fight (I was losing). Suddenly, a very pained expression formed on the madman's face, his hands stuck in his neck, trying to remove something. It was Lotto! But why? Bruises formed on my body as I watched the scene. No, this is not happening, I did not just go through all this. I am not in danger, my friend's lives all in my hands. Lotto is not killing this man. Gradually, the cat stopped his onslaught and the madman also fell. Where was Ken? I rushed towards the mansion and broke the already crumbling wall and there he was unconscious. I took him back to his house and began to search for the cat. It was dead. It's green eyes staring into space. I hanged the cat on a tree. Weakly, I collapsed, and felt as if I was falling into a deep pit and then there was darkness. In my comatose it seemed like I had done what I just did before. Everything just felt like a huge episode of deja vu....
I survived and told my family this bizarre story years later. I waited intently for the sweating and nervous twitches that were going to occur. Instead they stared at me with complete disbelief and just a hint of concern. "And that kids is how I spent my 14th halloween." I said.
"You're kidding right?" My daughter Kelly began to laugh. "That all you got? So much for trying to scare us Dad."
My son Tom got out his phone and started updating his twitter. "Dad with another fail attempt to scare us on our annual camping trip." He narrated as he typed.
"Why you don't believe me?" I asked.
"It's not that we don't believe you honey," My wife Dana replied, "It's just....I mean come on zombie kittens?" At this they all promptly began to roll around in laughter.
"What?! I'm serious guys I was literally being eaten alive by undead kittens." More laughter.
"From the looks of it Dad, the only thing eating you alive were the drugs you were on back then". Tom sneered.
"I'm serious guys all these things happened to me", I couldn't believe they didn't believe me.
"I think the moral of Dad's story is drugs are bad" Dana looked at me expectantly as if to tell me she was right and I was wrong, as usual. "Erm yes your mother's right, don't do drugs." I said quickly.
"You could have told us that at the beginning of the story, would have saved a lot of time". Kelly said.
"What can I say", I said "I'm always one for the dramatic, well, time go to bed kids."
When they had entered their tents I turned to my wife but she already knew what I was going to say. "Please don't say that really happened to you". She said, "Let's just go to bed".
"I didn't say anything", I muttered.
As I entered the tent I looked out into the dark forest and there staring at me, were a pair of dark, green eyes.....